


Kingdom Crushes

by PrincessPlantasaurus



Category: VeggieTales
Genre: Esther-verse, F/M, One Shot, a new Petunia role, exactly one (1) mouth kiss, exactly two (2) forehead kisses, post episode, semi-original character?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:40:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24358948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessPlantasaurus/pseuds/PrincessPlantasaurus
Summary: Esther-verse. Post-Esther. An ordinary day for palace servant, Lila (Petunia Rhubarb) becomes a whirlwind of emotions, as she finds out about two particular people in the palace with crushes she did not expect, and barely being able to keep her own crush on a certain scribe under wraps.
Relationships: Larry the Cucumber/Petunia Rhubarb, Markus/Lila, Xerxes/Esther (one sided)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	Kingdom Crushes

**Author's Note:**

> This features the "original character" of Lila. Lila is played by Petunia. Lila is a character I came up with about 6 years ago when the idea of "if there was a character for Petunia to play in Esther, what kind of character would that be?"
> 
> I've actually written quite a lot for VeggieTales over the years, and while I might work on uploading some of my other stuff here, I was really proud of this and thought it was the best one to start posting on ao3.

One might think that, as a servant to the royal family, becoming close friends with the queen would make your job a lot easier. Lila, currently panicking, would have to disagree. Since she and the queen were friends, Esther trusted her to cover for her when she snuck out, which she was doing more and more frequently. It's not as though Esther hated living here, she just hated being bound to palace walls. And given her high rank, and that the head guard and the king's right hand was a close family member...a quick hop out the window to visit the local markets every now and again was a pretty easy feat.

Not that it did Lila's nerves any good. Well, she thought, at least the queen didn't ask her to tag along this time. No, this time she was told to just stay in the queen's private chambers, and to cover for her should anyone come looking. She wasn't going to be long, she promised.

It wasn't even like this was the first time she asked. But it was the same thing every time. Lila would attempt to do some cleaning to keep her mind distracted, but that only ever took all of a half hour, maybe 45 minutes if the bathroom needed work. So she'd stand around and nervously fidget for an hour, just for no one to show up and the queen to return to happily chatter about her outing.

She was about 20 minutes into that standing around and waiting when her vague nervous thoughts were halted by a sudden knock on the door. Her brain was scrambling, trying to think of what to say. Before she could say anything, a voice on the other side of the door, impossible to not recognize, boomed "Oh queenypoo? Do you mind if we talk a minute?"

Lila didn't have a moment to pull together a plan, he just waltzed right in. He was the king, after all. He could do whatever he pleased.

The king made it about two feet into the room, eyes carefully glazing over the floor plan, before eventually landing on the redheaded servant. He didn't look upset, just genuinely confused. "You're not my queenypoo."

"Lila?"

Her eyes widened, as Markus, the scribe, stuck his head out from behind the king. "Markus?!" She'd been so nervous that she didn't even see him come in behind Xerxes. Oh no. Oh no oh no. To be caught going against the king, BY the king was one thing. But to be caught by the king in front of her object of years of hopeless pining?! Lila could literally feel beads of sweat starting to accumulate on her forehead.

"Oh good, you two know each other." The king hummed, almost absentmindedly. Lila had been so nervous that she didn't catch the sheepish smile and little wave of the quill. The king also didn't notice, but that was less of a surprise. "Now, Lila, is it, would you mind explaining to me why you're in my queen's private chambers, and my queenypoo is not?"

The poor girl was starting to feel like her throat was tightening. Trying to remember one of the prepared excuses Esther had so kindly gone over with her, she noticed, out of the corner of her eye, that the door to the bathroom was shut. Now, Lila didn't want to lie to the king, but she also didn't want the king to find out the queen wasn't here, and that Lila was partially responsible. "Her majesty as-sked to draw a bath." She prayed her usual stutter didn't read as nervousness. Markus knew, at least, that this was her normal. "I'm to st-stay here should she require anything."

"Hmm," Xerxes paused, pouting slightly. "I do suppose that makes sense." Lila let out a small sigh of relief, hoping this meant this was the end of this panic-inducing experience. It wasn't. The king looked around again, and lowered his voice, leaning in closer to her as he questioned "Just between you and me, does the queen ever...talk about me?"

Lila tilted her head slightly to the side, noticing Markus still scribbling away. So this was not, as he said, just between the two of them. "Undoubtedly. You're the king."

Xerxes let out a sigh. "I guess that's true. I just meant…"

Lila waited a beat, afraid of interrupting the king, before coaxing "Meant what, s-sire?"

Apparently the small push from the servant was all it took for the king to open up "Does she like me? Does she think I'm nice? I know she's probably not in love with me, but we are married. Are we at least friends?"

Well. Whatever Lila was expecting, it certainly wasn't that. "The queen has never spoken ill of you, s-sire. She s-seems to enjoy your pres-sence."

"Really?" the king physically perked up at this news. "What sort of things has she said?"

"I don't recall anything offhand." she admitted sheepishly, eyes now firmly fixed on the ground. "But her majesty often recounts stories from her day that include you. Put you in a good light. Makes her laugh."

"I make her laugh! That's a good thing. Girls like it when you can make them laugh." the king was speaking to either himself or to Markus, Lila presumed, as the comment was very clearly not directed at her. He paused, before looking at Lila, questioning "That is a good thing, isn't it?"

"I s-suppose s-so?" she tried. "I'm not entirely s-sure-"

"Well you're a girl, aren't you?" Xerxes interrupted. "In fact, this could actually be pretty useful. Have you ever been attracted to someone? Did you tell your friends stories about how funny he is?"

Markus did his best to not look too interested in this conversation's development. Maybe if he didn't stick his head that much farther into his scroll, he would've noticed how Lila's eyes flew to him, and how pink her complexion was getting. "I do talk about him a lot." she admitted, quietly.

"See, now we're getting somewhere! What sort of things do you say?" the king seemed very interested, and Lila felt very uncomfortable.

It wasn't the king's fault, of course. He had no way of knowing that Lila had been hopelessly infatuated with his scribe for as long as she'd known him. That she had admired him from afar way before the night he ran into her in the corridors, that since getting to know him her feelings had developed from that of a starry eyed school girl crush and into genuine romantic feelings. Feelings she had to keep hidden because he was so ridiculously out of her league - the king's personal scribe, one of the most educated men in the kingdom, not to mention handsome and charming, returning the affection of a plain looking, socially anxious servant with a stutter? She could only wish.

"I s-say a lot, I guess." her eyes returning to the floor, though it was the scribe's gaze she was actively avoiding now. "I talk about him to anyone who'll lis-sten. How s-sweet and patient he is, how much he makes me laugh-"

"See!" Xerxes interrupted. "Making girls laugh IS a good thing. Oh, I might stand a chance with my little queenypoo yet!" He sighed happily, before questioning "You have any idea what it's like to admire someone so out of your league? And I'm the king! She really can't do much better than that! And yet…"

Lila was only half listening. Markus had looked up from his scroll and managed to lock eyes with her, his expression...unreadable...to her. She felt her stomach drop. She'd done it. She'd gone and said too much and now she's ruined their friendship by scaring him off with her feelings. She knew he was going to find out eventually, but she really thought she might have had a few months of hiding that from him left in her. She didn't want everything they had, even if it was just a friendship, over so soon.

"Thank you so much for this chat, Lilac!"

"Lila." Markus corrected, startling both Lila and Xerxes.

"I better get out of here before my queen leaves the bath tub. I don't need her thinking I'm an indecent sort."

Markus held a quip about how bringing her here against her will, forcing her into marriage and a royal title, and almost sending her entire family off to the island of perpetual tickling may have already done the trick under his tongue. After all, HE didn't want to get sent to the island of perpetual tickling.

The pair of men bowed out, leaving Lila more nervous than before they'd walked in. On the one hand - great! She'd managed to successfully cover for the queen! And to the king, no less! On the other hand, she was now sure that Markus knew about all the feelings she harboured for him, and that he was none too thrilled about it. Plus, the whole thing with the king trying to romantically pursue the queen. That was confusing.

Luckily, she was only wrestling with her thought for a few minutes before Esther was climbing back up the building and into the window. Removing her headwrap, the queen sighed "It was a lovely day out, Lila. It's a shame you didn't want to tag along."

Lila tried to keep things light and airy, but instead, immediately blurted out "The king came to s-see you."

"What?!" Esther gasped. "What did you tell him? Did he find out?"

Shaking her head, Lila explained "I told him you were taking a bath."

The queen let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much for covering for me. I know how worried you were, but we both made it out okay!"

Lila simply nodded.

"What did the king want, anyway? Is there a dinner or something I should prepare for?"

Another shake of her head, before telling her "I think he wanted to s-see you, is all. I think he has a crush on you."

A roll of her eyes, before Esther mused, sarcastically "A king with a crush on his queen, how original."

"It s-seems like he really likes you." Lila toyed with the end of her braid, nervously. "He as-sked if you talk about him, what kind of things you s-say, s-said s-something about 's-standing a chance' with you."

"Gross." Esther muttered under her breath.

"I thought it was kind of s-sweet." Lila admitted.

"I guess." Esther sighed. "I just don't reciprocate. The king's a great guy! A little confused in his decision making sometimes, but I'm happy to be his friend! We could be really good friends! I just couldn't ever fall in love with him."

Lila nodded, although she didn't quite understand. Maybe, she supposed, that's how Markus felt about her. A great friend, but no one he could ever see as more than that. Maybe he'd still want to be friends. Maybe she could be happy with that.

She did her best to push thoughts of Markus aside for the rest of her day. She busied herself with cleaning, taking extra time to really deep clean things that may have normally been overlooked, like nooks and crannies of certain decorative objects.

Maybe that's why she'd lost track of time. She was still wiping down the handle of a candle holder outside the queen's chambers when she heard a familiar voice chirp "Hi Lila!". She nearly dropped the cleaning rag. Not only did the voice startle her, but the realization that it was late enough that the king was in bed, Markus' scribing duties having finished for the day. "Wow, someone's working late. Busy day?"

"Los-st track of time." she admitted, cheeks flushing pink, thankful that the candle was out, making it less likely for Markus to have noticed.

He nodded in understanding, before asking "Am I keeping you?"

Shaking her head almost furiously she assured him "I could've been done hours ago! Extra work, that's all. I'm done."

"Good." he smiled, unaware of the butterflies it made her feel in her stomach. "I was hoping we could talk, maybe."

She nodded, following his lead to the usual balcony the pair would sit out on at this time of night. The thought that he might not want to be friends with her anymore, knowing that she was in love with him, and all, and that this might be their last time on what she considered _their_ balcony together definitely popped up, but she did her best to push that thought, like her feelings, down. Much like her attempts to push her feelings down, it wasn't very effective.

"When the king was talking to you earlier…" he trailed off eyes moving from the stars, to her face, illuminated beautifully by the moonlight, to the stick he was lightly pushing some rubble around with. "...were you making that up to make him feel better? About you liking a boy that you talk about a lot?"

Lila had the chance to lie. She had the chance to get out of it. She had a chance to save the cherished friendship she thought for sure she was losing. But she already lied to the king today about the queen's whereabouts, and she didn't entirely love that feeling. "Why would I lie about s-something like that?"

She watched as his face fell, and she wasn't quite sure what to make of that. "I dunno." he shrugged. "I guess...you said you'd talk about him to anyone who'd listen. And you've never mentioned him to me before."

Markus still wasn't looking at her, so Lila dropped her own gaze to the ground. "I'm s-sorry."

"You don't have to apologize." Markus assured her, lifting his gaze back up to her face. She faced him again too, which made his heart skip a little beat, not that he was planning on telling her that. "You don't have to talk to me about anything you're uncomfortable talking to me about. I just...I just thought you and I were really close. I thought it's the type of thing you would've talked to me about. I didn't even know you had feelings for anyone."

And it made him kind of jealous. More than kind of jealous. Very jealous. But she didn't need to know that right now.

Lila nodded slowly. "I wanted to. Talk to you about my having feelings thing. I just...I don't think you'd like what you'd hear."

Markus sighed. Of course. It figured. He wasn't trying too hard to be sneaky, but that didn't make the fact that she figured it out less disappointing. "So you do, know, then?"

"Know what?"

"That I…" Markus' eyes moved again, firmly fixed on the stick this time. "I have feelings. For you. That's why you didn't want to tell me about your guy. Because you knew I'd be jealous."

Maybe if Markus' eyes had stayed on Lila, he would've noticed how wide her eyes were, or that her mouth had fallen open in shock. After about a half a minute of processing, she squeaked out "You like me?"

"Well, yeah." he shrugged, looking back up at her. "I thought you knew."

Lila simply shook her head. It's all she could do, given the shock.

"Wait, then if you didn't know...why didn't you want to tell me about your crush?" He paused, before something clicking and immediately rambling "Of course, you don't have to tell me if you're not comfortable and you're probably definitely not going to tell me now that you know I like you…"

"I like you." Lila interrupted, though her voice was quiet. "I jus-st didn't think you'd like me back. You're s-so out of my league, s-so I never told you. I didn't want to ruin our friendship."

Markus let out an overdramatic sigh of relief. "This is the best news I've heard all day." Lila giggled, as Markus dropped the stick he was playing with, scooching over a little closer to her. "Do you really talk about me to anyone who'll listen?"

Still giggling, she nodded, confirming with a small "Yeah."

Now scooting close enough that they were touching, he continued "You tell them that I'm sweet and patient and I make you laugh?"

Gently resting her head on his shoulder, Lila added "And that you're hands-some, and s-smart, and charming."

Nuzzling his cheek against her hair, Markus questioned "And I don't suppose you've heard any of the palace gossip? About how the scribe keeps talking about the servant who's the most beautiful woman he's ever seen, who's so kind, and attentive, and so quick at learning, and makes him feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside?"

"I haven't." she confessed. "Thanks for keeping me in the loop."

"Of course!" he grinned. "There is more, you know. Apparently he accidentally slips in the scrolls when her hair looks particularly beautiful because in the moment he thought it was an important detail. And that…" he paused, wondering if it was too much too fast, before deciding to just confess "...that he really, really wants to kiss her right now."

He looked down at her, and had to hold back a chuckle "Did you just pinch yourself?"

"Had to make s-sure." she admitted.

"Don't worry." he grinned, shifting his weight slightly so that he could bring his face down ever so slightly, gently rubbing his nose against hers. "It's real."

Their first kiss wasn't anything to write sonnets about. It was short, and sweet, and simple. And to the pair, in that moment, it meant the absolute world. They were both so elated afterwards that they both sort of forgot how close they were and promptly bonked heads.

"Ow." they muttered in unison, before both breaking into giggles.

"Just like that first night we met! Bonking heads in the hallway!" Markus was still giggling. "Except now…" he paused, gently planting a quick kiss to Lila's forehead "...I get to kiss it better."

Cheeks flushed, Lila offered. "I can kiss yours better, if you want."

"I would LOVE that."


End file.
